Word: robertson
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...nostalgia." But as you listen, new depths and distant sources emerge?and finally convince and captivate: Bach toccatas, folk tunes, commercial rock 'n' roll, Scottish reels, the sound of Ontario Anglican church worshipers raising their voices in hymns on Sunday morning. The lyrics are spiritual and timeless. In Robertson's The Weight, written for the group's first Capitol album, Music from Big Pink (1968) and heard in the movie Easy Rider, cascading lines of melody combine with mock-serious lyrics to bring an Old Testament character face to face with a 1970 rock musician...
Words and music are delivered with unfashionable understatement. At four recent concerts in Manhattan's 4,500-seat Felt Forum (sellouts all), The Band showed a no-nonsense absorption in music that would have done credit to the Budapest String Quartet. Robbie Robertson's main contribution is as a composer of most of the group's songs and lyrics. But onstage he is a sedate figure who vaguely suggests pictures of James Joyce as a young man. With the bare trace of a smile visible under his mustache, his eyes often closed in what seems to be creative ecstasy...
Among other things, The Band's un-idealized look into yesterday includes a rare subject for pop music: consideration of the old. "Most people are knocked out by younger people," Robbie Robertson explains. "I'm knocked out by older people. Just look at their eyes. Hear them talk. They're not joking. They've seen things you'll never see." Rockin' Chair, on the latest Band LP, sketches in the weariness of old age better than pop music has any right...
...glad to pay those union dues," the farmer sings. "Just don't judge me by my shoes." But then comes the refrain. With Danko and Robertson on guitars, creating a controlled hush that is just the right rustling background, Manuel and Helm sing in low unison...
...all?who turned out to be The Band, backed by most of the members of their respective families. It is characteristic of our age that many people thought the family bit had to be a put-on. It was not. "We don't see our people all that much," Robertson says. "But we get sick and tired of all these whiny rock groups who are always bitching about their parents...